Installing OpenSuSE 10.1 on a ThinkPad X41 Tablet
Contents
Success Chart
| Item | Working | Notes | |
| Installation | Network Installation | Yes | |
| USB Installation | Yes (DVD) | ||
| Display | Laptop Screen | Yes | X.org i810 driver |
| CRT / Projector | Yes | ||
| Screen Rotation | not working yet | ||
| Stylus | Yes | wacom serial driver. | |
| Power Management | Software Suspend (hibernate) | not tested | Software Suspend 2 |
| Suspend to Memory (ACPI sleep) | not tested | Software Suspend 2 | |
| Audio | Yes | ALSA intel8x0 driver | |
| Wireless | 802.11b/g | Yes | |
| Bluetooth | Yes | ||
| Extra Buttons | Keyboard Section | not working yet | ibm-acpi driver |
| Tablet buttons | not working yet | setkeycodes | |
| Middle Mouse button | Yes | ||
| Fingerprint Scanner | not working yet | bioapi | |
| Harddisk Active Protection | not tested | kernel 2.6.16, hdapsd | |
Introduction
As you will realise quickly, I've taken the installation tipps from the (by the way very good) site Installation of Fedora Core 5 on a ThinkPad X41 Tablet. I've been a windows user for quite a long time so I decided to go with OpenSuSE because I've already had contact with this distro some years ago and found it very good, looking at usability, settings, installation, etc. Many things of your Thinkpad will work out of the box.Later in this article I'd like to show some software I'm currently using and that I find very handy on a Tablet.
Installation
Download the OpenSuSE iso-Image and burn it either on CD's or DVD (if you go with DVD there's no need to swap media). An external drive should be recognized automatically. Installing OpenSuSE 10.1 is just as simple as with every other Linux distro. Adjust your local settings and choose your packages (see Helpful software for detailed information). After a reboot you're ready to run with the chameleon;-)
Personally, I logged on as user although you have some administration work to do, but the good graphical user interfaces like YAST or SAX make it easy.
Display
Graphics
For the graphics setup you can either edit your preferences the "Linux"-way or you go with the "Windows"-method. I've chosen the second one and so made my preferences with SAX2 that you should find in System > Configuration > SaX2.
Change the settings of the monitor, like resoltuion or color depth like you want but make sure you TEST your settings before SAVING them. Switching monitors with the FN-F7 combination should work out of the box.
Stylus
To enable the stylus simply go to the submenu "Touchscreen" in SAX2 and activate it. Choose "Wacom" and then "PenabledTablet". Save your settings and restart your computer and we're done here;-)
For information about enabling the stylus by editing the xorg.conf go to Installation of Fedora Core 5 on a ThinkPad X41 Tablet.
Screen rotation
Definitly a feature that would come in handy for use with a tablet. Unfortunately I'm having trouble updating my xserver for some strange reason (I used the way described in Installation of Fedora Core 5 on a ThinkPad X41 Tablet). I'm getting the warning that a lot of dependences are missing... So neither the rotate script nor the xrandr order work (at the moment, because I'm very interessted in this feature so I want it to work;-)).
Power Management
It sounds weird, but I actually don't care about Power Management because I just shut down my Laptop or look for the next power supply, but I'm sure that some may be interested in this so once again I recommend you to visit the Fedora Core site.
Audio
This feature works out of the box with no problems or any differences to Windows. but I havent suceeded controlling the volume with the Thinkpad Buttons
Wireless
No great thing there, both, wlan and bluetooth work properly and without any problems. Make sure you install the NetworkManager if you go with GNOME it's very useful.
Extra buttons
Keyboard section
The FN-Combinations should work properly without any changes but to get the special keys like volume up/down, mute working, you need to add some lines to the startscript "rc.local" in /etc/rc.d/
setkeycodes 6e 109 6d 104 69 28 6b 1 6c 120
To enable the back and forward keys, do the following:
Tablet Buttons
Middle Mouse button
You can activate the middle mouse button using SAX2 again. Enter your administration password and go to the submenu "mouse". There activate the option "Emulate Mouse Wheel" and change the number besides to "2". Restart your Laptop and it works.
As I use Opera I also changed my Opera settings according to How to configure the TrackPoint
If you're interessted in enabling the middle mouse button NOT graphical visit How to configure the TrackPoint
Fingerprint reader
I loved this one under Windows. It always gives this "magic"-effect when everyone types his password and you just swipe your finger, but I'm very unhappy not to get this running. I'm having problems with the BioApi because OpenSuSE 10.1 uses a newer GCC and the hint on the site How to enable the fingerprint reader it didn't work
Harddisk Active Protection
I'm not interested in this feature because I don't treat my laptop like a cocktail (shaken not stired;-))
Helpful software
Getting at least some of the features of a tablet PC working will offer you new possibilities of working.
- Xournal: handy program for taking handwritten notes (no recognition like OneNote). It has also the skill to annotate PDF's, very useful. Sources can be found here.
- VYM: If you ever need to create mind-maps (by the way a very good method for projects) "View Your Mind" is the right thing. You can select it on OpenSuSE Installation or get it via Internet or YAST.
- Scribus: useful to create flyers or other DTP-stuff. You can get an rpm-Package here.
- FFES:little program to recognize handwritten formula. It converts your handwritten formula into a bitmap using LaTeX so this could be very interessting for any scientist.
- MPlayer:for some strange reason SuSE doesn't provide support for the libraries neede to view DVD's. This is where you're gonna need MPlayer. You can get a rpm-Package here. For details go here
